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PHL: Pag-asa school an exercise in sovereignty

June 27, 2012 8:35pm

The Philippines on Wednesday ignored superpower China’s opposition to a municipal preschool in the disputed Kalayaan Island Group, sending a clear message to Beijing that the move of local officials to develop the makeshift facility was an exercise in sovereignty.

The construction of a kindergarten school in Pag-asa Island, the seat of the Kalayaan municipality within the island group, is part of basic services that residents there should get, Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said in an interview with reporters.

“The Kalayaan Island Group, including Pag-asa Island, is an integral part of the territory of the Philippines,” Hernandez said. “It’s very clear that this group of islands is ours.”

Kindergarten is the first curriculum year level of the K to 12 basic education program the Department of Education began implementing this school year with the phase-in of universal kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 7 (to replace the old first year high school curriculum).

Pag-asa Elementary School is the initiative of the remote municipality of Kalayaan. The school held its first day of classes on June 18, Kalayaan town Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon told GMA News Online in a telephone interview.

Bito-onon said he was exercising his mandate to take care of the welfare of the children and families on the island. He saw no reason for China to issue a warning.

The Aquino administration supports the initiative of the municipality.

“They (residents of Kalayaan) are Filipinos. And we will provide them (education). The President has mentioned (that) no one should be left behind... I think it is an irresponsibility on our part if we do not provide services to our fellow Filipinos in that particular municipality,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a briefing in Malacañang.

Pag-asa population: 222

China claims the South China Sea nearly in its entirety including areas that overlap with Philippine territory and the cluster of islands reefs and atolls further south called the Spratlys.

Other claimants are Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. Except for Brunei, all claimants have stationed military troops in their claimed territories in the vast sea – said to be atop huge oil and gas deposits,

Pag-asa is the largest of eight Philippine-claimed islands in the area that Manila calls Kalayaan Island Group.

The 37-hectare Pag-asa is equipped with an airstrip, commercial communications tower, and power generators. It is inhabited mostly by soldiers and civilian settlers.

Pag-asa has a population of 222 based on the 2010 population census by the National Statistics Office.

Hernandez said Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon “is responsible for governing his municipality and to ensure that development and progress take place in his municipality.”

This includes putting up a school. “He has the right to do that as a mayor in the place or island which we consider ours,” according to the DFA official.

Apart from the five kindergarten pupils, there are four "salimpusa" or tag-along children who are not enrolled in the school, according to the Pag-asa mayor.

Bottom line is education

"The bottom line is children should be educated,” Bito-onon said. “They must learn how to read and write," he added, noting the school was inaugurated without fanfare.

"We just improvised (using) one of our buildings," the mayor said.

The decision was to start with kindergarten, but Bito-onon said they may open more grade levels next school year.